In Forgotness: Forgotness Book 2

Forgotness

Book 2: In Forgotness

By Tom Fraser

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2017 Tom Fraser

v0.1 2016

v0.4 2017

v1.0 2018

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Book 2: In Forgotness

Chapters:

1. Slaggyford to Once Brewed

2. Straight up to Quinton, avoid Dudley

3. Tasmania and Moldovia

4. We live in Forgotness

5. J-Pop

6. Chipping Norton not Chipping Campden

7. The Strontium Dog

8. Come An Eilein

9. Fill That Tube

Chapter 1

Slaggyford to Once Brewed

Mint! You up? there was knocking at the door. Of course I was up, this was an exciting day. A day we could actually change things, if everything went to plan, which was still doubtful.

I meant, it was great that Jane and Felix had got together. That was a lucky coincidence. Though it had taken some time to work it out.

Gina had phoned to say that a Priest had taken a girl that had been helping the band. And you just couldn't have that, who knew how they would have used the girl, to do... something, they were always up to... stuff and you just had to fight it as best you ccould.

Anyway, Gina didn't have a surname for the girl. But we'd tracked the Priest’s car down to Tissington, an agent down there had found it abandoned at the docks. We had thought we were too late, that they'd gone to sea, but the agent had found some blood on the cuffs so at least we had the DNA and that gave us a name: Jane Dray.

So much police DNA information was kept and sold via the good old 'laptop lost in taxi' routine, as my dad would say, so many buyers in fact, health insurance companies mainly, obviously, that we had come across the database in quite a few hard drives over the years.

Still that got us the name, but we had thought we had lost her.

Until the Priest had got a new phone and phoned into head office. That got our hopes up and our assessment crews working on all the usual sources: phone, video cameras... and then there they were, outside Buxton getting into a van that was taking them to their death.

Still, Felix was made of some ferocious stuff it turned out and now they were somewhere on the other side of Skipton waters and just about everyone was after them.

I looked out the window. It was really quite a pleasant little bed and breakfast, stuck as it was, at the end of a very long, lonely track across Malham Moor. We had a view south over the heather and down to the sea, which was of course covered in mist, thank you oil burners of the world. And cows, don’t forgot the cows.

The B and B was a bit over the top, unsure if it was a real country cottage or an advertisement for Italian marble. But it was clean, everything worked, which was rare around here, despite our best efforts.

There was another knock.

Are you ready?

Yes, I'll be down in a sec. Any news?

I'll tell you when you get down. Prince John would have had him shot. The Priests? Crucifixion or some nonsense. Me? What the hell, does it matter? We get stuff done, we try to do good. And I get to wear some nice dresses along the way. Dad thinks I should 'tone it down a bit' stop 'showing everyone up'. But I will wear what I damn well want and I'm doing good stuff too!

And now I was getting angry. Just because I thought of Dad. Just because he still wears a Megadeth T Shirt under his jumper 'to remind himself'.

Everyone thinks they're the good guys don't they? So when we say: 'yes we can pretty well spy on everyone and control everything but it’s OK because we are trying to make things better', it’s not good. Yes we should stop, let everyone decide for themselves, but then Prince John and the corporations would rule everything and there would be no hope at all. So, for the moment, just for the moment, it’s us against them and the people will just have to wait.

Yes I know how crap that sounds.

So, I'm not going to think about it for a bit.

For a bit.

Good outfit though. Looks the part, and it'll wind up the right people.

It's eight. Time to go downstairs.

Morning team, I say cheerily heading to the hot plate. Yes! They have my porridge ready: grapes, date syrup, almonds and a cup of hot water with a slice of lemon. Good start.

There's a chorus of mornings. Six people sit round a table covered in bread products, coffee and laptops.

Any of you get any sleep? Chris? Hack the Shepherd boat yet?

Yup, said Chris, finishing off the last of her croissant. Piece o' piss, still XP, unbelieveable.

Well Trident are, it’s pretty likely everything else is.

But after the Yorktown bricking, surely...? Asked Sam, knowing the answer.

That was NT, 1997, I pointed out, Only a small jump from version 4 to 5. Can't expect much.

I tucked into my porridge. Not made with coconut butter damn it. Ah well. I managed to eat most of it. Better to finish this than be tempted by something else later.

So, how about Commander Colme's boat? We in?

Yes I'm in, said David, the only boy on the team.

Go carefully, they mustn't know. If it looks like they're getting close, just slow them down a bit.

I know, you said last night.

OK, but you know, just, they mustn't find out we can do this.

They won't, he assured me.

Any news on Jane and Felix? Sam?

Well, we know they went through Calderbrook. Well, you would have thought they would go through Backup.

Great name! laughed Chris.

But they didn't, continued Sam, so they must have stuck to the lanes to the east and got to Cornholme round that way. If they continued east we would have found them at any number of places along the way to Keighley: Oxenhope, Haworth, Oakworth. We've got some pretty good pictures of the van now so it would have triggered something somewhere.

So they stayed well out of the way of everything then.

Exactly, so they pretty well have to be here: on the west coast, west of the West Road, ie: out that window.

Sam pointed out to sea where, from this height, we could just about see the four miles to the opposite coast.

No one's saying they've had a boat stolen, trespassing, nothing? I asked.

No, replied Sam

And I guess he can swim. Being a Wetlander. It was unbelievable. We didn't know much about Wetlanders really. We had a few contacts. But to just go: 'I'm going to swim that sea today' was pretty scary. I wondered what Jane was making of it. Poor thing.

But Felix had proved himself pretty able. Not just with those Masons but avoiding the military and getting this far was impressive.

On a normal day we would have just gone and fetched the parawing ourselves but word had got out so fast. The Evangelicals had found out and that psycho Trumps had got wind of it too. We'd almost lost it then and there.

A current multiplier like that in the hands of Armagedonist America was terrifying. Not that Dad believed me. 'Let’s just fix this place first hey, then worry about the rest of the world'. Always 'The Aviemore Computer Repairs' man at heart. Simply the best.

Parents...

How close are Commander Colme and Father Jacob? I asked.

Er, Father Jacob's been past twice, so far, and is over Barnoldswick at the moment and will be coming back past here in about an hour. Then he normally goes east as far as Skipton before coming back again, explained Chris.

And Commander Colme is over the A56/A59 junction at the moment heading towards the Martons. But she seems to be going very slowly, perhaps to be quiet? that was David again.

Right. Is the Land Rover powered up? It was electric, of course, nice Tesla battery in it but it chewed through the power.

Yes, said Tat, from the corner, her feet up on another chair and a book over her face. All good to go.

Right, well, I said, let's wait and see what happens.

I cleared a spot on the table and my secretary, dear Enid puts up with a lot, brought over today's paperwork.

It wasn't all spying, though I had to keep on top of that as there were so many forces at work here in Scotland, there was the normal day-to-day business to deal with as well.

Prince John had kept the oil rigs running, the ones he could anyway, as they gave the nation or rather him, an income, something to export. They floated, so quite a few had survived the rise in sea levels, the earthquakes and ensuing tsunamis, the pirates and the other national interests; though there weren't many of them, most of Northern Europe was underwater.

We, the Linux Corporation, on the other hand were getting the wind farms going again and working on ways to store electricity (Tesla was gone, bloody Evangelicals) for the non-windy days. My favourites at the moment were: the heavy train at the top of hill - all the wheels are dynamos, the clockwork windmill - it makes electricity and it also winds itself up! There were other plans, mainly involving pumping water to places. Progress was being made and that was good. The oil companies and their allies obviously hated us and worked against us. Nothing new there.

Internet connection moved on. We were having some success using the power lines. Though there was a lot of pressure to fix the phone lines as well.

Then there was the international politics: Evangelist America and the Scientology wars, Europe and the new Catholic Roman Empire, North Africa and the Middle East were doing their muslim thing, Southern and West Africa was pretty stable, India and Pakistan were being surprisingly helpful to each other, South Russia and China were a bubbling post nuclear cauldron of crap, Australia and South America had each lost about half their landmass but were recovering at varying speeds.

Where would I move if I gave up here?

If you wanted old world then Czech, Switzerland and Austria were almost untouched, though currently a bit crazy with religion.

North America was even more bonkers than before, even though they had lost all the east coast and the south from Texas to Illinois. That left a lot of lets end the world bible-bashers to get excited and God-bothery in the middle and east side and the Scientologists to the west, hating each other. Constantly at war.

And history was a bastard. If we had just helped Africa a bit more then, maybe they would feel more like helping us now.

The Scandinavians, they made sense and, like us, were trying to rebuild but the volcanoes had made life difficult. Isostatic rebound was a … nearly a global catastrophic event.

No, we were better off fixing this place. Dad was right about that.

So I planned my moves and made amends and built bridges and generally fought the forces of evil: the Scientologists in Wales being a pain in everyone's butt, as were the New Roman Empire's Priests, and those bloody American Evangelicals. They all just wanted the oil of course but they couldn't say that. It all had to be: God says this and God says that.

Once the Saudi Family got the axe (literally) the whole Middle East cheered up pretty quickly. Probably equally as hopeful as the Scandinavians now actually. Mind you, it had helped that half of Israel was underwater too. Generally made everyone be a bit more neighbourly and helpful. Unbelievably.

Enid and I shuffled papers and made calls and generally got on with stuff.

Lunchtime came and went and there was still no sign of our friends from the south until David, who had given up watching Commander Colme's boat drift silently around the seas on his computer had taken up position at the window with some of the biggest binoculars I had ever seen, began talking.

Um. Hey? No, he muttered, Oh no, wait. What’re you up to?

Who are you talking to Dave? asked Sam.

Er, well, the Shepherd boat is doing something odd out there.

Like what exactly? I asked.

Seems it’s circled round a couple of islands close to this end of the row.

Can you see anything? Can you see them? I meant Felix and Jane.

Well, I thought I might have but I'm not so sure. The Priest's just gone off again.

I shook my head and got back to work.

It’s them, I can see them. Fuck's sake they are swimming.

We all jumped up and ran to the window trying to pull the binoculars off David.

"Ow! Wait a second. Ow! Stop pulling.